The past couple of days have been rather busy. I’ve been continuing to look at houses. One was rather awful and the owner threw a fit when my realtor asked the tenant if she would step out for a few minutes. Apparently she was getting ready to go somewhere. What I found interesting was the owner apparently was her mother, and she called her and told her my realtor had thrown her out of the house so my realtor could show the place to me. The woman (the owner) threw a fit. She showed up while we were walking through the house but by the time I had gotten only half way through the place I already knew this wasn’t for me, so as the woman went on and on with my realtor, I walked by and told my realtor, “let’s go”. We walked out. My realtor did try and smooth things over with the owner, explaining first that she was not told anyone would be there, and she was just asking the tenant if she would step out, she had not told her she had to.

My realtor and I both knew the owner was out of line. First off, they were notified that we would be viewing the place, and in fact she had to agree to the day and time for when we could go in and see the place. Second, what person in their right mind whether they are a tenant or the owner would be getting ready to go somewhere at the same time the place is supposed to be viewed by a potential buyer? Really? brushing your teeth, changing your clothes and so forth while someone is going through your home with the possibility of buying it?

After we left, I told my realtor, even if the place was immaculate I would not have bought it, especially not after the run in with the owner. The place obviously has some bad vibes from its owner and it would take a lot in order to cleanse the bad aura from the place. As soon as I heard the owner speaking and her attitude I knew the place would never be one I would buy. But looking at the interior only confirmed it.

As I walked past the owner, she and I made eye contact. I didn’t smile. I didn’t put on a pleasant face. I let her see how I felt. I have no doubt she realized she ruined the chance of selling her home at least with one potential buyer. I don’t think she understands the impact her actions have on other potential buyers. I know my realtor will never recommend the place to anyone, so she not only lost me as a potential buyer but anyone who would go through the office of my realtor.

This happened on Sunday. On Monday, my realtor scheduled two more places to go see for Tuesday, however, Tuesday morning I had to ask her to reschedule because my daughter had called me. She needed me to come get her. She was on a two night camp out with her grade six classmates. We don’t know until we go to new places whether she will have an allergic reaction to the mosquitoes there if they bite her. I sent her with mosquito repellant and benadryl spray and benadryl tablets in case she was bitten. She did get bitten and unfortunately the mosquito repellant didn’t work and the benadryl wasn’t helping much. They even sprayed down her cabin with Off, and the mosquitoes went straight for her bypassing her classmates. She was miserable and feeling sick, so I drove the 2 1/2 to 3 hours one way to pick her up. It was a trip through the mountains along an inlet, where you could see mountains jutting up from the water and not a cloud in the sky. We had never explored that area before so the drive was one I had never taken. I wished I had the time to stop and look because the drive was absolutely gorgeous.

I took our dog with us, who gets overly excited at times and the excitement caused him to be sick half way to our destination. Luckily I had prepared for such an event by laying down a blanket in the back of the Journey after laying the seats down so he could be close to me as we drove the long distance to get my daughter. I stopped and cleaned it up and we were back on the road in no time. I arrived earlier than I thought I would and was surprised I had not made a wrong turn, not even once along the way.

The teachers had to go find my daughter, not being sure where she was because she was not participating in all of the activities. She wasn’t far from the cabins and when she came out of the woods she saw her dog and her face lit up. Our dog, as soon as he saw her started crying and pulling at the leash, wanting to run to her. I was glad I brought him. Seeing the smile on her face even though she wasn’t feeling well told me I had made the right decision.

I took time to clean the blanket better, then we packed up her things and she said good-bye to her teachers and a couple friends. We were back on the road to home maybe within a half hour or 45 minutes of my arrival.

She was feeling nausea along with the awful itching and pain from the bites, so we stopped and picked up some ginger ale and a slurpee and a couple snacks in the first place we came to. Then half way home she and her dog curled up together in the front seat and went to sleep. The trip was a total of 7 hours, longer on the return trip due to rush hour traffic being bumper to bumper for about an hour before it opened up again. I got her home and settled, then went and picked up some Chinese food for dinner. Later that night, after she soaked in the tub of water with the sea salt I added, I laid down with her in her bed because she was feeling so miserable. She did sleep through the night which was good to find out in the morning.

Today, I took her to a walk-in clinic to see if we could get her anything stronger for her bites. All they would do was recommend claritin, and a hydrocortisone cream. So I went to a pharmacy and picked those up along with gravol for her nausea. She has been miserable today. Tomorrow she’ll stay home from school. She has to apply the ointment every hour or two and though the gravol is helping the nausea she still doesn’t feel well. I am sure the nausea is from the amount of bites she has. I counted 13 but I’m sure I missed some and some are hard to tell if they are double bites or not. Her body is attempting to find ways to rid itself of the toxins from the bites which to me makes sense why she is nauseous. The doctor however thought she was dehydrated. Though it is possible I don’t think that is the case since she is drinking fluids.

Needless to say, I’ve been focused on my daughter. While she was resting, I did go see the two places my realtor rescheduled for this afternoon. They both have good potential. They were both at opposite ends of my budget. The one on the lower end of my budget was closer to my daughter’s school and would be in walking distance. The other at the higher end of my budget was farther from her school, she could possibly ride her bike to school but it would be down a busy street. We are looking seriously at the one on the lower end of my budget. I need answers to questions like can we install central AC, put up a fence, and if there are any pet restrictions. We will look again tomorrow at the place so my daughter can see it. I include her in this decision process, mainly because she will be living there too, but also so she learns at least some of the process of buying a house.

The good things about this townhouse is, in the papers they put on display for potential buyers, they had a copy of the strata bylaws, as well as property disclosure so we didn’t have to wait for them or request them. Since we had the time we went through them quickly and couldn’t find anything that caused any red flags. We checked around the other townhouses and found some had fences, and one had central AC installed. The bylaws only stated that pets had to fall within the city ordinances, so it looks fairly reasonable. The place was well kept. Everything looked well taken care of. I’ll have to buy stackable washer and dryer, it only had a washer and it wasn’t made to be stackable. The laundry room is just a closet big enough for either just a washer or stackable units. The shower in the master bathroom is a small shower but with it just being my daughter and me, that really isn’t that important. Besides it will be less to clean.. lol.. I could possibly replace the shower with a larger one but it would mean losing the linen closet in the hallway. But we can look at that later and it isn’t something I would have to do.

Because the place is clean and well kept I wouldn’t have to do anything to it when moving in. No painting, no changing out of carpet, only installing the AC which is nice. Even a fence wouldn’t be necessary because the lawn behind the building is fenced from one side to the other which means if our dog got loose he wouldn’t be able to go far. Then there is the potential for what I could do in upgrades. With it being at the low end of my budget I could save money and do the upgrades over the years while we live there and I could eventually give it the ‘wow’ factor that I would like to have in the place and make it totally ours.

I think my daughter will like it too. And today when I came home and pulled up the listing, I discovered they had just dropped the price. I can’t help but think of all the signs that are telling me this is the place for us. I hope it works out. I’m ready for this. My realtor is too… lol

2 Responses to Bites and Rabid Owners

Hate that things have been so hectic, but, I can definitely relate. Hopefully your daughters reaction to the bites will subside soon. I am glad that things are going your way in the latest house. Too bad about the other, and I will just never understand some people. I guess the woman didn’t want to sell it bad enough!

Sometimes hectic is good, keeps me from thinking too much. It looks like goldenseal might be helping her. I gave her some the past couple nights before going to bed and she was able to sleep through the night without waking up itching from the bites. I’m going to try it through the day today. I’ll never understand some people either, they live miserable lives and want to drag others down with them. When we left that place my arms started itching like mad like I was having some kind of allergic reaction. No rash or hives appeared and the itching stopped shortly after we were down the street a bit. Such physical reactions fascinate me.